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By Jenna GottliebAssociated Press • Tuesday December 24, 2013 5:50 AM

REYKJAVIK, Iceland — In this land of fire and ice, where the fog-shrouded lava fields offer a
spooky landscape in which anything might lurk, stories abound of the “hidden folk” — thousands of
elves, making their homes in the wilderness.

So perhaps it was only a matter of time before 21st-century elves got political
representation.

Elf advocates have joined forces with environmentalists to urge the Icelandic Road and Coastal
Commission to abandon a plan to build a highway directly from the Alftanes peninsula to the
Reykjavik suburb of Gardabaer. They fear disturbing elf habitat and claim the area contains an elf
church.

The project has been halted until the Supreme Court of Iceland rules on a case brought by a
group known as Friends of Lava, who cite both the environmental and the cultural impact — including
the impact on elves — of the road project. The group has regularly brought hundreds of people out
to block the bulldozers.

And it’s not the first time issues about “Huldufolk,” Icelandic for “hidden folk,” have affected
planning decisions.

They occur so often that the road and coastal administration has come up with a stock media
response for elf inquiries, which states that “issues have been settled by delaying the
construction project at a certain point while the elves living there have supposedly moved on.”

Scandinavian folklore is full of elves, trolls and other mythological characters. Most people in
Norway, Denmark and Sweden haven’t taken them seriously since the 19th century, but elves are no
joke to many in Iceland, population 320,000.

A survey conducted by the University of Iceland in 2007 found that 62 percent of the 1,000
respondents thought it was possible that elves exist.

Ragnhildur Jonsdottir, a self-proclaimed “seer,” believes she can communicate with the creatures
through telepathy.

“It will be a terrible loss and damaging both for the elf world and for us humans,” said
Jonsdottir of the road project.

Although many of the Friends of Lava are motivated primarily by environmental concerns, they see
the elf issue as part of a wider concern for the history and culture of a unique landscape.

Andri Snaer Magnason, an environmentalist, said his major concern is that the road would cut the
lava field in two, among other things, destroying nesting sites.

“Some feel that the elf thing is a bit annoying,” said Magnason, adding that he is not sure they
exist. However, he added, “I got married in a church with a god just as invisible as the elves, so
what might seem irrational is actually quite common” with Icelanders.